Assassin’s Creed may not be a yearly series anymore after next game

We already know the Assassin’s Creed series of video games is skipping 2016, giving the team behind the next game some extra time to work and maybe even to give the movie a little room to breathe. But it sounds like Ubisoft is doing some serious rethinking internally, and that may change the way some of their biggest series work.

During a Q&A session with investors, CEO Yves Guillemot was asked if the Assassin’s Creed franchise would be yearly again once it comes back in 2017.

The goal is not automatically to come back on an annual cycle but to come on a regular basis. We saw that it was time now to give it lots of time so [the developers] could really work on the property and all the mechanics to make sure we could take it to another level. What we are seeing today is really promising. We will be able to come [out] on a regular basis. Now we can’t say every year.

Assassin’s Creed has been one of my favorite series since it debuted last generation, despite having some weird, questionable entries that have sent other gamers running. I’ve seen the heights it can achieve in narrative, scale, and beauty, and it seems like Ubisoft is starting to refocus on achieving those goals. It might be that they were waiting to have enough yearly franchises to fill in the shareholder gap. Either way, I think this bodes well for the series as a whole.